Post navigation

Divine, the big haired, arch-eyebrowed 300-pound drag queen who appeared in John Waters’ films, was outrageous, campy and shocking. She also was a trailblazer for women, said author James Egan, a USC screenwriting professor who knew Divine.Divine’s story is told in the documentary “I Am Divine,” which screens Sunday at The Palm Springs Gay and Lesbian Film Festival. Photo by Andrew Curtis.

LONG BEACH – Divine, the big haired, arch-eyebrowed 300-pound drag queen who appeared in John Waters’ films, was outrageous, campy and shocking. She also was a trailblazer for women, said author James Egan, a USC screenwriting professor who knew Divine.

“Divine redefined what it ment to be a woman,” said James Egan, author of the book “John Waters: Interviews.” “Previously, you had to waffer thin like Audrey Hepburn. But here she comes a 300-pound drag queen saying, I’m the most beautiful woman in the world. She pushed the limits of what it ment to be a woman.”

Divine’s story is told in the documentary “I Am Divine,” which will be screened Sunday at The Palm Springs Gay and Lesbian Film Festival. The 86-minute film tells the story of Harris Glenn Milstead, better known by his stage persona – Divine.

Milstead’s life includes his humble beginnings as an overweight, teased Baltimore youth and then his status as underground royalty who thrilled and titilated audiences with her trashy and campy film work and disco performances.

Milstead died in 1988 from a heart attack caused by an enlarged heart. He was 42 years old.

The film also explores how the late Divine challenged the status quo of body image, gender identity and sexuality.

“It’s been over 25 years since his death, and I started getting concerned that Divine’s legendary status might be in jeopardy, particularly with a younger generation,” said “I Am Divine” director Jeffrey Schwarz. “Divine is an inspiration to misfits, outsiders, rebels and freaks to be who you are.”

“Divine was this amazing new woman on the screen, the next level of Joan Crawford on acid,” Egan said. “Divine took the star image one step further. You couldn’t have a stronger leading lady.

“She did outrageous sexual acts, like having sex in church,” Egan said. “She was tremendously violent, shooting people and beating up people. She put her children in cages. She redefined motherhood,” Egan said, chuckling.

A trashy star is born
Born in Baltimore in 1945, Milstead was 12 when he and his parents moved to Lutherville, a Lutheran enclave and super conservative area outside the city. The teenager was bullied and abused by classmates because he was overweight and his perceived effeminacy.

One of Milstead’s first attempts at drag was in 1963 – He arrived at a party dressed as an astonishingly passable Elizabeth Taylor.

Eventually, Milstead became friends with Waters, who also lived in Lutherville, joined his acting troupe, Dreamlanders.

Together they created a character who mocked conventional, “pretty” drag queens.
“As a teenager Divine was picked on, teased and abused mercilessly,” Schwarz said. “When he met John Waters and the other Dreamland folks he found a group that accepted him, loved him, and encouraged him. He was able to take all that trauma and channel it into the Divine character, and throw everything that people made fun of him for back in their faces. Being the Divine character was an empowering thing for him.”

Divine was rebellious, outrageous, trashy, campy and wicked. Waters christened her “Divine,” and her behavior shocked audiences. A star was born.

In 1967′s “Eat Your Makeup,” Divine dressed as Jackie Kennedy in a reenactment of the Kennedy assassination, and in 1970′s “Multiple Maniacs,” Divine played a homicidal criminal who goes on a killing spree and is raped by a giant lobster.

“John Waters and Divine were making those films to shake up the love generation. They wanted to scare hippies and become famous and it worked,” Schwarz said. “Those films have been hugely influential in pushing boundaries in humor. He certainly helped to make drag hip. Before Divine a lot of the drag world was trying to be pretty and feminine, or doing Judy Garland impersonations. Divine helped make drag radical and subversive.”

It also took courage to make those movies in Baltimore, Egan said.

“Nobody supported them or encouraged them,” he said. “They were self made and motivated.

“But it was the atmosphere of the time. People were doing outrageous things. It was the height of sexual revolution. The Andy Warhol crowd was coming to Baltimore. It was this outrageous energy between New York and Baltimore. They were trying to outdo each other.”

Those films, in all of their trashy glory, also have important cinematic significance, said Todd Wiener, motion picture archivist with the UCLA Film & Television Archive.

“Those films have a campy, queer aesthetic that is important to the LGBT community,” he said. “There wasn’t a queer identity in cinema in the 1960s, but they were doing this guerilla filmmaking in Baltimore.”

Perhaps Divine’s most notorious cinematic achievement took place in Water’s 1972 cult favorite “Pink Flamingos.” Divine plays Babs Johnson – “the filthiest person alive” – and she lives up to that title when she puts a fresh poodle feces in her mouth.

Beyond the trash
While Divine continued working with Waters on film, she took her twisted sense of humor to the club scene. In the early 1980s, Divine recorded several Hi-NRG tracks – “Native Love (Step By Step),” “Shoot Your Shot”, and “Love Reaction” – and helped promote them by touring discos around the globe. In 2000, That Kid Chris remixed “Native Love” into a tribal house track popular in gay clubs.
In 1988, Divine worked with Waters on “Hairspray.” The role became his breakthrough in mainstream cinema.

Apart from Divine’s showbiz work, “I Am Divine” also explores Milstead’s relationship with his mother, Frances. In the early 1970s, the two had a falling out, but they reconciled years later.

Schwarz interviewed Frances before her 2009 death.

“The film has a humanistic heart and soul,” Wiener said. “Behind the shocking and outrageous drag persona, is this incredibly sensitive soul. His mother’s struggle with his sexuality and reconciliation is the heart of the film.”

“I Am Divine” producer Lotti Pharriss Knowles says while audiences will see the man behind the mask in the documentary, Divine’s persona made her cult royalty.

“Eating dog poop at the end of ‘Pink Flamingos’ certainly cemented his mark on the underground — though that scene was a blessing and a curse to his career as a whole,” Knowles said. “But more than that, his in-your-face and take-no-prisoners approach to film roles and live performances made him a hero to so many of us fans, and empowered a lot of people to be who they were.”